A public grand opening for the civic center is planned for 2 p.m. June 29.

VISTA  When the gavel falls to open Vista’s next City Council meeting on Tuesday, big changes are in store.

No longer will the meeting take place in a converted 1950s school building, as it has for 31 years.

Instead, the council will greet the public in the city’s gleaming $55 million civic center.

“It’s a whole new chapter in the city of Vista,” said Mayor Morris Vance, who will finally see his dream of a real City Hall became a reality, three decades after he was hired as Vista city manager.

“It will give a much better image of the community, not only to our own citizens but to people coming into the city,” Vance said. “We won’t be working in a dump any longer, a facility that has long seen its day.”

Councilman Bob Campbell, who served as Vista’s economic development director before being elected to the council, said he believes the new City Hall will bring increased investment to the city.

While developers visiting the old City Hall might have questioned whether the city had the wherewithal to handle a major project, Campbell said, “That entire notion will be dispelled with the completion of this project.”

The new civic center is adjacent to the old City Hall complex, its curved facade of travertine tile looming above the squat, dilapidated former school.

Over the past two weeks, the 150 city workers who will work out of the new building have been packing their files and equipment and moving them into the new civic center.

The building opened to the public for business Tuesday.

The move will bring together employees working at the old City Hall and across the street at the former Lincoln Middle School. That facility will be turned back over to the Vista Unified School District by the end of June, Johnson said.

When visitors enter the main entrance at the new civic center, they will find public counters for building and planning, business licenses, sewer billing, finance, human resources and code enforcement.

The new center also includes a room that can be rented for weddings, banquets and meetings, and a counter where people can buy tickets for productions at the city-owned Moonlight Amphitheatre in Brengle Terrace Park.

A passive park will run behind the civic center.

Once the civic center is open, the next phase of the project will involve demolition of the old City Hall and construction of additional parking and landscaping, Johnson said.

Proposition L also funded construction of two new fire stations, renovation of a third fire station, upgrades to Moonlight Amphitheatre and a new sports park, which is expected to be completed by the end of summer.

Johnson said the project was completed a few weeks ahead of schedule and is on track to come in at or under its original budget.

The civic center earned good reviews from members of a women’s philanthropic group who were recently given a tour by city officials.

“I think they were very impressed. The building is beautiful as well as being efficient,” said Betty Minor, who was one of the 40 or so women who took the tour.

Minor has lived in Vista since 1954, nearly a decade before the city incorporated.

“This has been a slow process. In that whole time, there’s never been a proper City Hall. It feels good. I think it’s about time,” she said.